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Beef Gravy

A thick beef gravy made by stewing beef with carrots and onions, then simmering with water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Beef Gravy

Why it works: Carrot and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Notch the beef with a knife.

  2. Place the beef in a stewpan with whole carrots and onions, without adding water.

Make the gravy

  1. Stew over gentle heat for 30 minutes until the gravy is drawn from the meat.

  2. Add the required amount of water and continue stewing for 3 to 4 hours.

  3. Strain off the meat and preserve the gravy for future use.

  4. For soups, add part of a knuckle of veal to convert the gravy into jelly.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Beef + vealtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Carrot + vealtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Coarse beef
Provides the meat that releases flavour and gelatin into the stock during long, gentle stewing.
Whole onions
Contribute savoury, aromatic sweetness to the gravy as they soften in the stewpan.
Whole carrots
Add gentle sweetness and body to the gravy as they cook slowly with the meat.

The step that matters

Stew over gentle heat before adding water. Stewing the beef without water first draws out its juices so they concentrate in the gravy. Keeping the heat gentle prevents the meat from toughening and the liquid from boiling away or turning cloudy.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, veal):

  1. Potatofits about as well
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Carrotthe original
  4. Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, veal. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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